This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive.

Ordinary Brazilians Don't Want to Play Ball With FIFA

From the 1976 Olympics in Montreal to FIFA World Cup 2014, it's always the same pattern: there are "unforeseen" construction cost overruns, taxpayers get stuck with the final bill while profits remain in private hands. Ordinary Brazilians are told that the world cup represents a unique opportunity to showcase their growth and to free themselves from the label of a third world nation. Brazilian trade unions and protest groups refuse to play ball. Can you blame them?
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
Shutterstock / Marques

The French say "Sois belle et tais-toi," a misogynistic way of telling women to make themselves pretty and keep their mouths shut. This expression captures the high-minded contempt with which the South African elite treated Township folks when it hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The governing ANC told its firebrands to keep quiet about the country's numerous challenges and celebrate its post-Apartheid accomplishments. For one glorious month, South Africa swept poverty, racial inequality, political corruption, criminality and HIV AIDS under the rug while the country's elite enjoyed its vanity project.

The World Cup was supposed to bring massive infrastructure projects, prosperity and foreign investments to the country. Beyond white elephants, it's hard to see what ordinary South Africans have gained from hosting the event. According to the 2013 UN Human Development Index, not much has changed. South Africa ranks 121st out of 187th countries (they ranked 129th in 2010). Four years later, more than a third of South Africans still live on less than $2 a day. If that's progress, I wonder what failure looks like.

From the 1976 Olympics in Montreal to FIFA World Cup 2014, it's always the same pattern: there are "unforeseen" construction cost overruns, taxpayers get stuck with the final bill while profits remain in private hands. Ordinary Brazilians are told that the world cup represents a unique opportunity to showcase their growth and to free themselves from the label of a third world nation. Does that script sound familiar? Brazil and South Africa are part of what the financial elite calls the BRICS, an acronym that lumps together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as emerging markets where foreign investors can make a buck on the back of cheap labour or an abundance of natural resources.

Brazilian trade unions and protest groups refuse to play ball. They're pointing to the obscene amounts of money being spent on the World Cup to give FIFA's sponsors a guilt trip about their complicity. Can you blame them? During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa an estimated 3.2-billion TV viewers tuned in, that's nearly half the world's population. Brazilian protest leaders want to use this unique platform to put the spotlight on the country's endemic socio-economic problems.

Pelé, the most recognizable player in the history of the game, is trying to ratchet down the rhetoric. "Let's forget all this commotion happening in Brazil, all these protests, and let's remember how the Brazilian squad is our country and life and blood," Pelé said on a Brazilian television network.

If the 2013 UN Human development Index is anything to go by, Brazil ranks 85th, behind countries such as Iran (76th) which has been under an American embargo for since 1979; Lebanon (72nd) which has faced war and military occupation for much of the past three decades and Ukraine (78th) which has just negotiated an emergency bailout with the International Monetary Fund to stave off bankruptcy.

According to Forbes magazine, over the next 30 days the World Cup will generate $4 billion dollars in total revenue for FIFA, soccer's international governing body. How much of that money is going reach poor people living in its infamous Favelas? Not much if South African Townships are the reference. It's no wonder that graffiti depicting hungry children being offered a soccer ball to eat have become commonplace on the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo as an expression discontent.

As the tournament kicks off on June 12 under a cloud of controversy, Adidas, FIFA's longest-standing backer, took the unusual step of declaring that the negative coverage is "neither good for football nor for FIFA's partners." In this poisonous atmosphere, sponsors are refraining from rolling out their usually glitzy marketing campaigns. For its part, Coca-Cola says it is prepared to tone down its branding message due to growing social unrest while Sony is pressing FIFA to fully investigate allegations that Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 World Cup through improper means.

Nigel Currie from sports sponsorship agency Brand Rapport told the BBC that "companies and brands are becoming increasingly aware, and have an added push and impetus towards showing ordinary people they are aware that there is a social aspect to being a sponsor."

"When firms are involved in major sporting events like the World Cup there has to be an increased awareness of the outside world, and to take a more realistic approach to the world that people can respect," adds Currie.

If FIFA is blinded by dollar signs, its sponsors know when it's time to cut their losses.

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:

The Tancredo Neves International Airport in Confins (MG), is the gateway to thousands of Brazilians and foreign tourists for the next five weeks... Or at least it will be if it's finished.
LINCON ZARBIETTI/O TEMPO/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
When the pictures were taken, still less than half of the proposed works for the World Cup have been completed.
LINCON ZARBIETTI/O TEMPO/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
Brazilian authorities insist they're ready, but passengers may find themselves in for a rough landing.
Instagram/@lunagontijoresende
Experts blame poor planning and excessive government control for the airport problems
LINCON ZARBIETTI/O TEMPO/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
President Dilma Rousseff has dismissed complaints that Brazil isn't ready.
Instagram/@flabarros_1975
"We aren't building airports just for the World Cup, just for FIFA," President Dilma Rousseff recently said. "We are building for Brazilians."
Instagram/@mthzbarbosa
The Tancredo Neves International Airport, however, looks far from ready.
Instagram/@gvizane
Arriving tourists will be sharing the airport with dozens of workers.
AP
This, meanwhile, is the state of a stadium building site. Work is continuing at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil.
Getty Images
On the eve of the first training session of Uruguay's national football team, employees of a cleaning company pose for a picture at the Arena do Jacare in Sete Lagoas.
Getty Images
Brazilian Army soldiers take part in a simulated explosion of a radioactive device at Mane Garrincha National Stadium during a safety drill at Mane Garrincha National stadium in Brasilia on June 9.
AP
This May 9, 2014 shows that work continues at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil.
Workers fix a banner before the 2014 soccer World Cup at the Arena da Baixada stadium in Curitiba, Brazil,
Getty Images
A graffiti depicting Tatubola, the mascot of the World Cup, on a wall of the Maracana metro station, as restoration works take place.
EPA
Men at work in the unfinished Arena Corinthians stadium, in Sao Paulo
EPA
A worker puts cement on the floor of the unfinished Arena Corinthians stadium, in Sao Paulo
Getty Images
A man paints the floor of a decoration on June 8, 2014 in Itaquera neighborhood, on the east side of Sao Paulo, Brazil, near the Arena Sao Paulo stadium, where the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2014 will take place.
Close
This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.